Parliament Proposes Incentives for 638,000 Madrasah Teachers Unable to Become Civil Servants

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Deputy Chairman of Commission VIII of the House of Representatives (DPR RI) Abidin Fikri has proposed that the government, through the Ministry of Religious Affairs, provide special incentives to improve the welfare of 638,000 private madrasah teachers who cannot be appointed as Government Employees with Work Agreements (PPPK) or civil servants (ASN). Based on a joint meeting with the Ministry of State Apparatus Utilization and Bureaucratic Reform, he stated that the appointment of hundreds of thousands of these private madrasah teachers is hindered by the provisions of Law Number 20 of 2023 on Civil Servants because they work in private madrasahs (private schools). “I think there needs to be a breakthrough. The 638,000 madrasah teachers proposed by the Ministry of Religious Affairs to become PPPK or ASN should not reach a dead end, leaving them in limbo,” Abidin said in Jakarta on Tuesday. He offered a scheme for providing incentives to madrasah teachers, namely by calculating the incentives based on the ratio of the number of students across all madrasahs (Ibtidaiyah, Tsanawiyah, and Aliyah) and the length of service of the madrasah teachers. Abidin provided an illustration: if the ratio is one madrasah teacher per 15 students, then the total need for teachers can be calculated from the total number of private madrasah students in Indonesia. “Just calculate the total number of students in all madrasahs in Indonesia and how many madrasah teachers will receive incentives, plus the incentive value based on the length of their service,” he said. The incentive scheme for madrasah teachers, according to Abidin, must meet the prerequisite of having accurate, valid, and accountable data on madrasah students throughout Indonesia. In this way, the number of teachers receiving incentives can be determined transparently and accountably in every madrasah across all regions of Indonesia. He assured that Commission VIII of the DPR RI will continue to monitor so that the incentive scheme for madrasah teachers can be included in the Ministry of Religious Affairs’ budget for the coming year. “The principle is that the state must be present to improve the welfare of madrasah teachers. They have already strived with extraordinary dedication, but their welfare has been neglected,” he said.